Digging Into the Declaration of Independence

We have begun our unit on the Charters of Freedom (the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Virginia Declaration of Rights, and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom).  We discussed the Declaration of Independence in our previous chapter, but we often have to review the details and meaning of the document.

In the spirit of review, I'm combining a couple of my old posts that have inspired me to combine reading comprehension strategies in this unit.

First, Close Reading.

I find that you can copy the text and have them annotate, or you can use page protectors over the text and use dry erase markers to annotate.

Second, textmapping.  This is similar to Close Reading, but it has the students annotating together and all the pages are copied, taped together, and laid out so students can view the entire selection at once.

I made a PowerPoint that goes into detail on this and other nonfiction comprehension strategies.  You can pick up a free copy by clicking here.

Some suggested resources for reviewing the Declaration of Independence:

This is a magazine similar to Time for Kids, but it's all about certain subjects (the Declaration in this case).  It's not free, but it's worth a look.  Check it out by clicking here.

You could do this with just about any book, but it definitely works best with nonfiction.

Do you have any books or resources for teaching The Charters of Freedom?

Mentor Text Linky--Language Arts/Social Studies

I'm joining Amanda and Stacia at Collaboration Cuties for their Mentor Texts linky.

 Last week's focus was Language Arts mentor texts, but I'm not focusing on Reading or Writing.  One of my goals this year was to incorporate more mentor texts into my Science, Math, and Social Studies curriculum.

I've always felt that Social Studies requires quite a bit of reading comprehension strategies, and it just so happens that we're focusing on the skill of compare and contrast at the moment.  So, what better book to review our Founding Fathers AND apply comparing and contrasting than...

John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith.  This book lends itself well to compare the characters by making a chart and listing each Founding Father's character traits.  A triple-Venn Diagram also works well.

We also compare and contrast the settings for each character, such as  when and where they were born and where they lived when they were adults.

This book also helps to review the American Revolution and Documents of Freedom that were written before, during, and after the war.

How about you?  Do you have any great books that support reading comprehension AND bridge the gap between core curriculum subjects? 

Getting to Know Virginia Abolitionists

One of my goals this year was to incorporate short video clips into my Virginia Studies curriculum as Anticipatory Sets.  I found a great one about Nat Turner's Rebellion, and it's even created by a fellow teacher! 

He introduces/narrates the video and even adds a bit of humor to it.

I created a PowerPoint and Cloze activity to help review other abolitionists and give a sneak peek into the creation of West Virginia.

This PowerPoint discusses abolitionists Nat Turner and John Brown and the formation of West Virginia.  It includes a Cloze activity for students to complete as they follow along.

You can pick up your free copy by clicking here.

Do you do a unit on abolitionists or the Civil War?  Care to share any great resources?

Westward Movement Lesson

We recently wrapped up a unit on Westward Expansion after the Revolutionary War.  We focused on the Thomas Jefferson's efforts as president to increase the territory owned by the United States.  Our Lesson Essential Question was:  What geographic factors influenced Virginians to move to the western frontier of Virginia and beyond?

We started with an anticipatory video about the Louisiana Purchase.

Then a little longer video about using the Cumberland Gap as a gateway west.

This video is a little "grainy," but I found that it's kid-friendly and they really understood what the Cumberland Gap was after this video.

We review:

• The capital has already moved three times (Jamestown, Williamsburg, Richmond).
• Reasons for wanting to move west (tobacco destroyed the soil, new economic and land opportunities).

We fill out the chart below.  I give them 10-15 minutes to work in pairs to fill in the blanks and then we talk about it as a class.

Why Did People Move Westward?

Economic Reasons	Social Reasons	Political Reasons	Environmental Reasons

All of the sudden, the reasons we discussed are more challenging because we are using different vocabulary terms (political, environmental), but with guidance, they quickly pick up on it.  They need to recognize and be able to use these terms interchangeably for testing purposes.

Do you have any great resources for this unit?

 

Introducing the American Revolution

I'm always trying to find ways to incorporate reading into other subjects.  I especially like it as introduction to a text.  Jean Fritz's books are fantastic for this purpose in history!

I have students read the book in pairs or trios.  After reading it all the way through, I have them go back and answer the questions in the packet.

You can pick up a free copy of my packet at my TpT store by clicking here.

Do you have any other great books to use for the American Revolution?